In the North Caucasus, at least 14 people were killed and missed as a result of severe floods. In the natural disaster zone - Karachay -Cherkessia, Krasnodar Territory, North Ossetia, Stavropol Territory and Chechnya. Hundreds of people are evacuated. Thousands of houses were destroyed or flooded, roads, power lines, dams, bridges were damaged. The traffic along the Transkavkazsky line is blocked. The damage caused only to the Stavropol Territory is estimated at one and a half billion rubles.

Two armed Palestinians penetrated last night into the Jewish settlement of Itmar on the west coast of Jordan and opened fire on its inhabitants. Four Israelis were killed. Israeli soldiers shot one of the Palestinians.

The State Duma of Russia today adopted an amendment to the bill on the circulation of agricultural land prohibiting the sale of land to foreigners. 366 deputies voted for the ban, six - against. Citizens of foreign states receive the right only to long -term lease of farmland. The deputies also rejected the amendment proposed by the government, which allows foreigners to acquire land after three years of lease. The Duma considers the bill in the second reading.

In the North Caucasus, at least 24 people were killed as a result of severe floods, three more were missing. In the natural disaster zone - Karachay -Cherkessia, Krasnodar Territory, North Ossetia, Stavropol Territory, Ingushetia and Chechnya. Thousands of people are evacuated. About seven thousand houses were destroyed or flooded, roads, power lines, water and gas pipelines, dams, bridges were damaged. The traffic along the Transkavkazsky line is blocked.

In Romania today, military exercises begin within the framework of the NATO Partnership program in the name of peace. The maneuvers that take place near the port of Constanta will end on July 6th. The troops of the six NATO countries - Greece, Italy, Poland, Turkey, the USA and France participate in them. Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania and Ukraine were also sent to the exercises.

By decision of the United Nations, June 20 is celebrated as World Refugees Day.

Tatyana Voltskaya , St. Petersburg: June 22 - Day of memory and sorrow, the anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. On the eve of the St. Petersburg Institute of Press Development, a presentation of the new book of the American writer Harry Carolinsky “Russian Key” took place. Harry Karolinsky - in the last radio journalist, left the USSR in 1973. His first book, published in Russian - "The last owners of the Kremlin" - is dedicated to the history of Soviet power.

Abu Sabaya, one of the leaders of the Philippine extremist group Abu Sayyaf, apparently, was killed or seriously wounded in battle with government forces, said the President of the Philippines Gloria Arraoo. Sabaya (real name Aldam Tilao) is one of the five leaders of extremists, for the information about which the United States established a reward - five million dollars.

US President George Bush on Thursday sent a Russian-American agreement on a reduction in strategic offensive potentials for ratification to the Senate. Bush asked the senators - not to delay the ratification. The presidents of the United States and Russia signed an agreement at the May summit in Moscow. The parties pledged for ten years to reduce nuclear arsenals by two -thirds. According to the American Constitution, the Senate ratifies the agreements signed by the president.

Yuri Zhigalkin , New York: on Wednesday, potentially sensational scraps of information leaked due to the tightly closed doors of the soundproof hall in the Congress building, where the meeting is taking place. It became known that at the disposal of the super-secret agency for national security, the largest intelligence structure of the country, there were records of conversations of al-Qaeda members intercepted on the eve of the attacks on September 10.

Back in February, a serious accident of the water supply network took place in the village. Several hundred meters of water supply and water intake itself failed. A week later, the same commission refuted the first conclusions about the causes of the infection and stated that the Seasonal workers who came to work from the southern regions of Russia and the CIS countries brought abdominal typhoid. In one day, 11 people were hospitalized with a diagnosis of Typhus.

Two people died as a result of floods in the south of Russia, two more are considered missing. Seven areas are flooded in Karachay-Cherkessia. Gas supply and supply of electricity are broken. Several cities were injured in the Stavropol Territory, including Stavropol, Kislovodsk, Essentuki and Pyatigorsk. The damage caused to the region is previously estimated at more than one and a half billion rubles.

In Chechnya in Urus-Martan this morning, the deputy head of the factory district police department of the Terrible Isa Timaev was killed this morning. Unknown, dressed in camouflage uniforms, brought Timaev from the house and shot. According to the headquarters of the United Group in the North Caucasus, five Chechen fighters were killed last day during special operations. Seven people were detained on suspicion of participating in armed groups.

The host of the St. Petersburg hour of the Liberty Live program Tatyana Valovich: A lot of research has been written about the Great Patriotic War, but many documents are still unknown. A lot of myths and speculations appear that have nothing to do with real events. Today, Grigory Nabovshchikov, a St. Petersburg journalist, a historian who devoted half a century to the collection of archives related to the outbreak of war with Soviet intelligence will take part in our program.

The Parliament of Montenegro adopted on Thursday the law, according to which the property nationalized by the Communists will be returned to the original owners or their descendants. The value of the ownership subject to restoration exceeds one billion dollars. If its return is impossible for any reason, the owners will be paid monetary compensation. The authorities expect that the law will be fulfilled for three years.